Wolverhampton Wanderers boss admitted getting banned on purpose to stay home and watch golf

Free weekends are a rarity in the life of a footballer, but one current Premier League boss managed to line up his yellow cards to get one off and watch the golf

Wolverhampton Wanderers boss Gary O’Neil once deliberately got himself suspended so he could watch golf at home.

Despite their shock exit to Coventry City in the FA Cup quarter-final, the former Bournemouth manager has enjoyed an impressive debut campaign at Molineux. O’Neil has not only proven he can bring a team forward in difficult circumstances, he has also established himself as one of the most outspoken bosses in the Premier League.

Whether it is VAR or Sky Blues boss Mark Robins celebrating in the face of a teenage ball boy, O’Neil is not afraid of being brutally honest in interviews and press conferences. Middlesbrough fans would know, as the Englishman once admitted to getting himself suspended during his playing days at the Riverside Stadium so he could watch the Masters.

In 2009, O’Neil was part of Gareth Southgate’s Boro side that were hammered 4-1 by Bolton Wanderers. It was a chastening defeat at a time when Middlesbrough were deep in a relegation battle. Shortly after Kevin Davies opened the scoring for Bolton, O’Neil popped up and netted a equaliser to drag them back into the contest.

But a strike on the stroke of half-time from Gary Cahill followed by second-half goals from Matt Taylor and Ricardo Gardner left Boro looking up at the rest of the table. During the match, O’Neil was booked for a foul on Gardner, which was assumed to have been influenced by frustration.

What fans did not know at the time was that O’Neil knew he was one yellow card away from a two-match suspension and had got himself booked so he would be banned while the Masters was on.

In a previous interview, via the Hartlepool Mail, he admitted: “I’ve taken one booking myself, on purpose. Not over Christmas. I wanted to watch The Masters. The US Masters, it was in April. I was on nine yellows, and I was definitely getting ten anyway. We were playing Bolton away or someone.

“I thought, ‘If I just get a yellow here, I can sit at home next weekend with my mates, and watch The Masters’.” Now he is pulling the strings at Wolves, you can bet your bottom dollar O’Neil knows how many bookings each player is on.

The 2024 US Masters takes place between April 8 and Sunday April 14. Unfortunately for him, he will have to record Saturday’s play and keep away from the results, as his side travel to Nottingham Forest – and there’s no getting out of it this time Gary.